Exotic animal diseases communications strategy: August 2022

Animal Disease Policy Group

To provide disease control advice and strategy recommendations to Ministers and other strategic decision makers.

Representatives from the four administrations (Defra, DAERA, Scottish and Welsh Governments), the Cabinet Office, and public health bodies who provide advice on zoonotic disease and its control to the three GB administrations.

Animal and Plant Health Agency

Executive Agency of Defra working on behalf of the Scottish Government, Defra, and the Welsh Government to deliver government policy with regard to animal health and welfare.

APHA staff

Central Disease Control Centre

The CDCC will generally be in Saughton House, Edinburgh.

APHA's Head of Field Delivery Scotland (HoFDS) will become the Outbreak Director for Scotland. For cross-boundary outbreaks it will be headed up by the Service Delivery Director.

Participants will include:

APHA Forward Operations Base (FOB) Manager

APHA Field Operations Manager (FOM)

SEPA

Police Scotland

Local authority Resilience Adviser/Resilience Manager

Management Control Team

The Management Control Team (MCT) is the local executive body embedded within the CDCC to deal with issues concerning:

• resources
• local implementation
• problems of national policy
• local communications with stakeholders and the media

The MCT will normally include the following:

• Outbreak Director for Scotland – Chair (APHA)
• Scotland Veterinary Lead (APHA)
• Operations Manager (APHA Field Team leader)
• Outbreak Director for Scotland (APHA)
• CDCC Finance Manager (APHA)
• APHA Communications
• APHA Resilience Lead
• Scottish Government Communications Liaison Officer
• Scottish Government Principal Agricultural Officer (RPID)During an outbreak with zoonotic potential, the PHS led National Incident Management Team (IMT) will provide representatives to both the CDCC and the Disease Strategy Group (DSG) (see para 3.38)
• Other organisations may be co-opted as the need arises

Chief Medical Officer

The Directorate for the CMO and Health Protection Division set the strategy, policy and high level objectives for managing the human health implications of an exotic notifiable animal disease outbreak.

The CMO and members of the Health Protection Division

Disease Policy Unit

The DPU assists the DSG in managing the disease control operation.

The DPU will implement the DSG instructions. APHA will likely set up a Central Disease Control Centre (CDCC) to coordinate local operational response.

Staffed by Scottish Government to assist the DSG in managing the disease control operation.

Disease Strategy Group

A group of senior civil servants (including veterinary staff and others) and senior operational partners that will direct the strategic response to a notifiable disease outbreak in Scotland and advise Scottish Ministers.

Upon notification of any case of exotic notifiable animal disease in Scotland, the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands will be informed by the Chief Veterinary Office (CVO) in Scotland, and a Disease Strategy Group (DSG) will be established. The DSG will be chaired by the Director for Agriculture and Rural Economy and will report to the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs and Islands. It will meet in Edinburgh, with communication links to the Central Disease Control Centre (CDCC). If the disease is zoonotic, public health operational and government colleagues will be invited. If Scottish Ministers activate the full corporate response, the DSG will report to, and take direction from, Scottish Ministers via SGoR.

Scottish Government

• Director, Agriculture and Rural Economy (Chair)
• CVO Scotland
• RPID Agricultural Office senior leader
• Head of DPU
• Head of Poultry Unit
• Health Protection Division
• SG Legal Directorate
• Communications Directorate
• Resilience Division
• APHA Outbreak Director (Head of Field Delivery Scotland)

Others

• Scottish Local authority Animal Health and Welfare Strategy Group (Local authorities)
• Other organisations including Police Scotland and NatureScot

Centre for Expertise on Animal Disease Outbreaks

EPIC is a Centre of Expertise on Animal Disease Outbreaks, which may play a role in the National Emergency Epidemiology Group at the request of Scottish Government.

The EPIC consortium are staff from:

• The University of Glasgow
• BioSS (Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland)
• The James Hutton Institute
• The Roslin Institute
• SRUC
• Moredun Research Institute
• The University of Edinburgh

Forward Operating Base

The FOB will be located close to the outbreak and will act as a base for field staff to operate from.

APHA's Outbreak Director for Scotland will direct the establishment of a FOB involving APHA staff.

Other front line staff may include:

• Local authorities
• SEPA
• Police Scotland
• Rural Payments and Inspections Division (RPID)
• CPHM (if zoonotic disease)
• Other partners may be co-opted as the need arises

FOB operational partner meetings

To provide an opportunity for APHA to convene ad hoc operational partner meetings to enable discussion on what the operational partners could potentially contribute to the local outbreak response, and what they may need from APHA to meet their outbreak response obligations. Issues regarding wider consequence management should not be discussed here, but should be referred to resilience partnerships. Meetings are expected to be more frequent at the start of the outbreak, and will be called when there is insufficient time during FOB bird tables or CDCC Tactical-Operational Management teleconference to address issues.

• Chair – Veterinary Advisory Field Delivery (VA-FD)
• Secretariat - External Communications
• Other participants (or their representatives):

• Local authorities
• SEPA
• Police Scotland
• Scottish Government Rural Payments and Inspections Division (RPID)
• CPHM (if zoonotic disease)
• Other partners may be co-opted as the need arises

National Incident Management team

Established where disease has zoonotic potential.

Lead by PHS

National Disease Control Centre

APHA will establish an NDCC to coordinate the operational response throughout the whole of Great Britain.

Membership will depend on the disease in question and the scale and severity of the outbreak. The NDCC may include representation from operational partners, Other Government Departments (OGDs) and stakeholder groups.

National Expert Group

To provide specific technical and scientific advice and recommendations on the disease, its transmission and its control.

A permanent group of scientists, meteorologists, economists and veterinary representatives from within and out with government, which during outbreaks will provide specific, technical and scientific advice and recommendations on the disease, its transmission and its control, with a view to supporting government policies.

National Emergency Epidemiological Group

To co-ordinate and report on the epidemiology of exotic notifiable disease outbreaks; to describe and anticipate disease frequency and distribution, and to identify risk and so inform control measures.

NEEG is comprised of epidemiologists, data scientists, scientific project managers, a modelling coordinator and an international trade representative.

National Security Council

NSC meetings are held at either official or ministerial level and further

attendees in addition to those stated in the terms of reference may be invited on an ad hoc basis.

Ministers or Officials

Outbreak Co-ordination Group

The OCG is established as part of the NDCC and is responsible for ensuring that strategic and tactical direction and policy intent is translated into practical instructions. It provides an advisory and coordination function for those involved in controlling the disease at the operational level and produces management information, situation and summary reports.

See NDCC membership

Public
Health
Scotland

Where an animal disease outbreak is zoonotic (i.e. can affect human health), close liaison would take place with PHS and the relevant NHS Board(s). The public health response to the outbreak would be coordinated through and NHS led Incident Management Team (IMT).

PHS staff

Resilience Partnership

A Resilience Partnership may be activated to deal with the wider consequences of a disease outbreak, to ensure that multi-agency response is well co-ordinated and effective. Resilience Partnerships can be convened at a local level or across a wider area, depending on the nature of the incident and organisations involved.

Resilience Partnership is a term used to describe the collective of category one and two responders to an emergency, and includes regional and local resilience partnerships (RRP/LRPs).

SG Rural Payments and Inspections Division

A Division of the Directorate of Agriculture and Rural Economy.

RPID's main roles are:

• To provide advice and support to DSG, Ministers and the DPU
• Staff the national helpline that feeds back to the DPU with licencing and other issues that may need to be addressed
• Production of maps (in support of the APHA mapping team)
• To provide assistance in the development and drafting of general licences
• To provide support to APHA field staff where necessary

RPID has around 600 staff in 17 area offices throughout Scotland doing a variety of jobs - some are specialists in agriculture.

The stakeholder group will:

• Facilitate discussions with stakeholders to inform policy decision making
• Provide a two way exchange of views and information between stakeholders and the Scottish Government
• Help keep individual members within each stakeholder organisation informed, and to communicate key messages between constituent members and the Scottish Government
• Alert the Scottish Government to any particular issues stakeholders may be facing

Appropriate stakeholders representing the industry.

Scottish Government Resilience Division

The role of the Scottish Government Directorate for Safer Communities' Resilience Division is to co-ordinate the corporate response of the Scottish Government to any major emergency or unplanned event with multiple consequences.

Scottish Government staff

Scottish Government Resilience Ministerial group

When the scale or complexity of an emergency is such that some degree of central government co-ordination or support becomes necessary, the Scottish Government will activate its emergency response arrangements through SGoRR. The precise role of SGoRR will vary depending on the nature of the emergency.

SGoR - M will include Ministers and officials from the main affected Scottish Government Directorates and representatives of relevant agencies.

Scottish Government Resilience Official group

When the scale or complexity of an emergency is such that some degree of central government co-ordination or support becomes necessary, Scottish Government will activate its emergency response arrangements through SGoRR. The precise role of SGoRR will vary depending on the nature of the emergency. SGoRR will include staff from the main affected Scottish Government Directorates and representatives of relevant agencies.

SGoRR will include staff from the main affected Scottish Government Directorates and representatives of relevant agencies.